Cycling, trains, walking. This is the place to talk about how good or bad cycle routes are, mention great train journeys, talk about car sharing schemes or husky travel. Anything in fact that is about transport that is a little alternative.

I've been wanting an electric vehicle for a while. Where we live, on an island, the maximum distance you can drive is 19km, so limited range is no problem, and the speed limit is 50 or 60 km/h, so speed isn't an issue. Any time I was working on a project and needed some nails or something, I'd either have to take an hour off to walk to the store and back, or take the regular bike and get all hot and sweaty slogging up the big hill, or else drive the car, which doesn't get warmed up on the short trip and wastes fuel. So,an electric vehicle makes a lot of sense.

After eliminating an electric car because of cost, and investigating electric tricycles (and eliminating them for the same reason), I bought an electric bike. It is a regular 24-speed mountain bike with the electric conversion installed at the factory. It has a 350 watt motor, and the battery is good for 50 km at maximum assist.

Green Aura wrote:Is it good with hills? I could do with one to get to the village - although an invalid carriage might be more suitable at the minute!

So what have you done?
I must admit to being a bit achy today as I have spent the last 2 days working hard in the garden. Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest and I'm taking advantage of the fact.
The electric bike does sound interesting, how abouts some photo's?

We've been madly busy trying to get a semi-derelict building into a fit state to open the shop area - leaking roof, mouldy walls, rotten plasterboard etc have all had to be stripped, removed, treated, cleaned, rebuilt, papered and painted. OH works during the week and the gal (who's house it will be) works very hard at avoiding work - so yours truly has been doing a lot of things I've not done in a VERY long time. But after 6-7 weeks of some hard graft we finished most of it yesterday (the gal hasn't managed to get out of painting the woodwork today ) so OH and I have had our first proper day in the garden. Bliss!

He's cleared out the polytunnel (and I'm looking at him as a potential Sunday roast, it's so hot in there ). And I've been weeding the raised beds - who'd have thought I'd have to water in May up here

Tomorrow is earmarked for carrying on with the forest garden - the early onset/late finish winter meant we're woefully behind schedule. So that will mean some more serious weeding, shrub planting - I know it's a bit late - and marking out paths. I've got a (hopefully) nice young man coming on Wednesday to help me dig them out.

I reckon by Thursday they'll be able to bury me under one of the trees! And still I've not lost weight, after all this

Sorry Keith - another of my famous hijacks

Maggie

Never doubt that you can change history. You already have. Marge Piercy

Green Aura wrote:Is it good with hills? I could do with one to get to the village - although an invalid carriage might be more suitable at the minute!

Hi, Maggie. Hope you get some recovery time soon!

Yes, it is good on hills. We have a killer 13% hill between our house and the hardware store. Downhill going out, uphill coming home. Last night, after supper, I took the bike out for a test run. I was shameless about using up the battery, because I wanted to see what it could do. As part of the test drive, I rode down the hill and back up.

Going downhill, I had it in maximum regenerative braking. If it hadn't been for the hairpin turn, I wouldn't have had to touch the brakes at all. As it was, I only needed a light brake application going around the curve. Going uphill, which is a heart-pounding granny-gear slog on my other bike (a custom-geared touring bike), I didn't even have to use the lowest gear, as I had the electric system cranked up to maximum assist. I hardly broke a sweat.

Keith,
Do you have a link to your particular model? I'm curious how the bike looks with motor and battery. Now you can get one of those low priced solar panels for charging a 12V battery...that would make it even cooler.

Unfortunately, a 12-volt panel wouldn't do the job, since it is a 40-volt battery. It is one of those smart chargers that talks to the battery pack, so they warn against using any other charging system. My friend, who has the same electric package on his bike, lives off the grid, and gets all his electricity from solar. He plugs his charger into an inverter. Not quite as efficient, but hey, he's off the grid and I'm not, so who am I to talk about efficiency?

We've been madly busy trying to get a semi-derelict building into a fit state to open the shop area - leaking roof, mouldy walls, rotten plasterboard etc have all had to be stripped, removed, treated, cleaned, rebuilt, papered and painted. OH works during the week and the gal (who's house it will be) works very hard at avoiding work - so yours truly has been doing a lot of things I've not done in a VERY long time. But after 6-7 weeks of some hard graft we finished most of it yesterday (the gal hasn't managed to get out of painting the woodwork today ) so OH and I have had our first proper day in the garden. Bliss!

He's cleared out the polytunnel (and I'm looking at him as a potential Sunday roast, it's so hot in there ). And I've been weeding the raised beds - who'd have thought I'd have to water in May up here

Tomorrow is earmarked for carrying on with the forest garden - the early onset/late finish winter meant we're woefully behind schedule. So that will mean some more serious weeding, shrub planting - I know it's a bit late - and marking out paths. I've got a (hopefully) nice young man coming on Wednesday to help me dig them out.

I reckon by Thursday they'll be able to bury me under one of the trees! And still I've not lost weight, after all this

Makes my efforts tame by comparison. After reading the above, I had to go an lie down! It must be satisfying to make so much progress?